Portugal: Operation EVO anti-piracy success
April 6, 2023
By Colin Mann
Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária (Judiciary Police), through the Unidade Nacional de Combate ao Cibercrime e à Criminalidade Tecnológica (National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime) has, since the beginning of 2022, been carrying out an investigation into combatting digital piracy, which consisted of the illegal sharing of audiovisual products protected by copyright.
This investigation arose from the complaint filed by Disney Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, Universal City Studios LLC, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Netflix Studios, LLC and Amazon Content Services LLC, against an international criminal group, EVO Release Group, widely known in illegal forums for sharing movie content.
The group, known as ‘EVO’, was one of the most active pirate groups worldwide in the dissemination of audiovisual products protected by copyright since, at least, 2019.
The group made available various audiovisual content (namely, films and series) illegally taken from the victims’ servers, causing a loss of more than €1,000,000, through p2p sharing, namely torrents and via subscription by numerous users on illegal streaming platforms.
At issue are crimes of illegitimate access to the victims’ servers, computer fraud, money laundering, tax fraud, crimes against authors’ rights, namely the crime of usurpation, and criminal association.
The investigation made it possible to determine how the criminal group operated, which consisted of extraction, recoding, using specialised hardware and software, and distribution on illegitimate platforms.
The investigation managed to identify the servers of the criminal group, where the pirated content was stored, located in the USA.
In Portugal, house searches were carried out and various computer equipment was seized and three defendants were charged, on suspicion of belonging to the criminal group.
In collaboration with the FBI, deactivation of the criminal group’s servers was also carried out.
After analysing computer data, it was possible to identify the alleged leader of the group in Portugal, proceed with his arrest and carry out a house search. Following initial interviews, several restriction were placed on him, namely banning contact with the other defendants, banning access to certain websites and related servers and banning the acquisition of computer equipment.